You know what's really cool? Getting a bunch of people who love Star Trek together to watch some good old The Next Generation. You know what's even cooler? Getting those people to watch it on the big screen in a movie theater. Guess who got to do that? Me! Thanks to IGN, I was able to go watch Star Trek: The Next Generation in all of it's glory up on the big screen. So, what was it like to see Picard, Riker and the rest of gang up on the big screen? Check it out!

Making of Best of Both Worlds

The theater filled up with anxious Star Trek fans that were eagerly anticipating the event. We were then treated to a trailer for the upcoming show we were about to see. The crowd, amazed at what they saw, cheered as the trailer came on. The trailer included the behind-the-scenes look at how Best of Both World's was shot and then concluded with the episode's trailer along with some bloopers. We were then taken into the behind the scenes feature. Many of the show's cast talked about what it was like to film and act the scenes. Some of the stars included: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Seth MacFarlane (who worked as a side writer, uncredited it seems), Elizabeth Dennehy and a few others.

What took my breathe away however, were some of the cast and crew who showed off how they filmed some of the cool scenes in the episode, especially when the Borg mothership exploded. The amazing thing they did in the look was depict frame by frame and how they filtered all of the CG and other special effects that made the episode come alive. The crew also went over initial passed with different camera filters from a matte filter, a computer generated filter and then the final filter. Once you see all of these filters come together, it's a real special tweet.

Going back to the cast. There were some really funny moments with Dennehy and Frakes. Especially since both of their characters were the main focus for this particular episode. Dennehy talks about this role being her first time doing a role on television with this big of an audience. Dennehy — a classically trained actress said she was nervous and was uncomfortable on the first day of her rehearsals. She goes to state that she would lose focus and would be overwhelmed with the fast pace nature of how the show was filmed and rehearsed. If you watch the episode, it would see like she was confident and knew what she was doing. Dennehy goes on to say that it did get better and better as time went on.

The Borg parts were interesting. The crew said that they were having a love affair with a someone with a bald head to fill the role of one of the Borg. Which was why Stewart was perfect for the part. Using him as the leader of the Borg, also known as Loctous of Borg, was an genius move. This would give the Borg all of the knowledge of the Federation, which made them deadly.

It was a really cool experience to see how the episode was made and really cool from a techie's side of things. Now we move on to the two-part epside: The Best of Both Worlds

The Best of Both Worlds

The Best of Both Worlds was a turning point for Star Trek: The Next Generation. It solidified that it had an amazing array of characters who could do any possible role when they needed them too. It marks the first time Picard was not able to captain his own ship and was presumed dead. It also marked the first time that Riker had captain status on the Enterprise. I'm sure a lot of you have seen this episode by now, so I won't bore you with the details of the episode. Instead, I'm going to give you a little bit of my thoughts on the episode.

Being someone who hasn't seen Star Trek: The Next Generation since his childhood, I was very fuzzy coming into the theaters to watch it. I remember Riker being a badass and Picard being the man you looked up too. In this episode, it was like my childhood appeared just in front of me again. I was like a kid in a candy store. I was a huge fan or Riker and didn't really remember the attachment of himself to Shelby, but you could see the animosity they had for each other in the beginning, and what I thought, was going to be a bigger future together for both of them. Turns out that Riker married the beautiful Dr. Troi, but that's a different story for another time. I really liked the chemistry that Riker and Shelby brought to the episode. Each one trying to out do one another was really cool. When Riker became Captain, their animosity stopped and they were on the same team. This is when their relationship matured, which was really cool to see.

Seeing Picard as the bad guy was a really cool experience too. The range Stewart has is quite amazing. As Loctous of Borg, Stewart was used by the Borg as their guide to the Federation. The main objective was toassimilate the people of Earth. I always find it funny that the Borg wanted a peaceful existence of people, but went in a more violent way to do so. Maybe it was because the Federation put a fight against them. But, they're look was certainly cool, I probably would have went with the Borg...maybe. Picard as the now stoic member of the Borg was their figurehead. Their means to an end to talk with the Federation for the unconditional surrender. In the end — of course the victors would be the Federation, because they are the good guys after all.

This is the episode that will most likely make me watch Star Trek: The Next Generation again. Like I said, I was a big fan of it when I was a kid (we're talking 10 - 12 years old here) and I'm still in love with Marina Sirtis, the lovely woman who played Deanna Troi. Of course, the real star of the show here is Patrick Stewart, who will always been the head of class in terms of acting and general!

After the airing of the episode, we were treated to some bloopers and a trailer for the the next season of Star Trek: The Next Generation that will be out on Blu-Ray and DVD. The next season will be season number 4. All in all, I thought it was a really cool event. I wish there was a little bit more too it. Just some basic slides that told you what was going to happen. It didn't detract from the event, but a little fanfare would have been cool. But, hey, you get to see The Next Generation in theaters, what more could you want?

Thabass is an aspiring community manager for online video game communities. He current serves as an IGN All-Star! Thabass is also well-versed in the video game business with over three years of being in and following the industry. He can be reached on Twitter @Thabass or can be followed on My IGN.

Initial thoughts of Mafia II

Here we are again. A new game released and myself giving some feedback into 2K Games latest crime game. First off, the music really sets the mood for the entire game. Some may notice it, but some may not. A nice piano theme plays in the background of the pause menu as I type these impressions out and I always felt that in the demo, you were given first hand on what type of game this will turn out to be. You play as Vito Scaletta, a war hero brought back from World War II after being wounded in battle. Before we get into the meat and bones of this, I am going to try to keep this spoiler-free, but I do want to mention that you do not start in Empire City. Once you do regain control of Vito, you will be placed back into Empire City and a good friend of yours, Joe, will be there to great you. He does Vito a big favor and soon will have to repay him for the deed. Controlling Vito is essentially the same as most of the open world or "Sandbox" games that you have come accustomed to; which is always a nice change of pace. A lot of my worries from the demo were addressed such as getting into an automobile using the same buttons. I like the fact that you can have "safe driving mode" since you can be caught speeding by the cops. "Safe Driving Mode" is essentially a way for you to drive the speed limit so a cop will not pull you over. This brings in a lot of realism to the game that other sandbox games like this have chosen not to deal with.

Mafia II brings WW2 America to life

The missions have been pretty standard fare so far. Nothing has happened that has surprised me as of yet, sans the beginning of the game. A lot of the missions I have just encountered are taking me through the controls of the game. The shooting mechanics are good, but they definitely leave room for improvement. I feel as though I am used to the Grand Theft Auto franchise with the way Rockstar had their aiming setup. It's a little bit more free in Mafia II than it is in GTA IV, which to me, is a little more challenging. This may or may not be a popular mechanic for most players, but I am sure most of you will not mind how the shooting mechanics are designed in this game.

One unfortunate side effect from the demo was screen tearing; a side effect which has indeed made its way into the final version of the game. It's less noticeable, but should be picked up by anyone who is paying a good amount of attention to the screen and how it effects the screen. After doing some clothes shopping and getting into a cutscene with the new clothes on my back, I noticed that some of the articles of clothing did not show up into the cutscene. This happened for more than one cutscene and it took me right out of the immersion of Empire City and this story. I think 2K Czech could have fine tuned that a bit more so that all articles of clothing would still show up during the cutscenes.

Can't be a Mafia game with bloodshed!

So far, I am liking my time in Empire City. The mission structure doesn't really provide a feel for an open world which is kind of a downer and some of the gameplay mechanics are questionable at best, but I don't think I will mind if the story picks up a bit. The voice acting and music is top notch. Stay tuned for my full review when I finish the game.